Basketball: NBA star Luol Deng sees the Games as a chance to repay a debt

Thursday 19 July 2012

Luol Deng may be the richest member of Team GB, with a £6m annual contract with the Chicago Bulls affording him the kind of luxurious spending sprees unavailable to those scraping by on Lottery funding.

Luol Deng in action during the recent match between Standard Life Team GB and Portugal at Sheffield's Motorpoint Arena. Picture: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images

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Mark Woods

Great Britain's basketball totem has come a long way from his arrival on these shores, aged six, as a refugee from what has become South Sudan. Virtually unknown in his adopted homeland, he now holds the status of an All Star in the NBA with all the accompanying trappings of fame across the Atlantic.

Yet, as he prepares to face many of his fellow leviathans when Great Britain take on the United States in an Olympic warm-up in Manchester on Thursday night, he retains close ties to his roots in the sport in Brixton. And he remains vexed that while basketball has gone native elsewhere in Europe, it continues to be viewed as an extension of Americana in the UK. "It used to really bother me that we're not good at basketball. It still does," proclaims the 27-year-old. "We're getting there. But I used to look at all these European countries and they have good teams. They had players in NBA and at that time, we didn't have one. As a kid we always used to talk about it and talk about one day having a team that could compete. I feel like we're heading there but the timing of everything: the Olympics happening now, all of us having a chance to show, it's huge because everyone is going to see that we have talent in the UK."For all the accusations of Plastic Brits that have been thrown around at some foreign-born athletes with Team GB, there is no doubting Deng's commitment to the cause. His wrist should have been operated on within days of the Bulls premature exit from last season's NBA play-offs. It would be have meant missing the Games so the 6'9" forward resisted pressure from his employers to recuperate this summer. Indeed he considers it to be an obligation to pay his family's debt for the safe haven provided when they fled the war in their native country.Deng has long since moved on. Like many of his GB team-mates, including the Scottish duo Robert Archibald and Kieron Achara, he headed to the USA in his teens in search of greater competition and the opportunity to combine education with daily coaching.It meant giving up his other ambition, to play football for Arsenal. It was not so far-fetched – he was invited to England's youth trials – but an offer to go to high school in New Jersey was attractive for a variety of reasons."When they told me that I could go to America, look after my sister and avoid the GCSEs... I wanted to avoid them somehow," he laughs. Sure, he says, there were dreams of the NBA. "But it was really about the GCSEs."In Manchester, it is all about the USA as they prepare for the defence of their Olympic crown with their litany of superstars, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Britain have risen up the rankings in recent years, reaching two European Championship finals but they have never been tested like this. "I'm making no predictions, that's all I'm saying," Deng states.The American's most illustrious predecessors provided one of his earliest Olympic memories, as he and his friends huddled around any TV they could find that carried the action from Barcelona. "The Dream Team, 1992, I remember that," he recalls of an omnipotent side that included Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson."I remember how good that team was. Just watching them beat every team by 30 or more points and doing it so easily."He will hope GB's first encounter with the reigning world champions is a little closer and that their invitation as hosts to the Olympics is justified. The return of Stirling-born Achara to the fold came amid quiet lobbying from Deng. "Kieron is a really smart, talented guy," Deng states. "We missed having him around last summer."London, he adds, will give everyone a chance to shine. "We're not going to the Olympics just to fill up the schedule. People will realise we have talent and can be competitive."

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Basketball: NBA star Luol Deng sees the Games as a chance to repay a debt

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